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hospitality – transactions – consulting

Bio

Michael Shindler has operated since May 2014 Four Corners Advisors, Inc., a hospitality transactions advisory and consulting firm, which he founded in June 2007 and operated through January 2010. Four Corners Advisors, Inc. provides services to non-traditional hotel owners, buyers and developers, lenders to hotels and brand operators and offers strategic organizational structuring and related services. Four Corners Advisors has its primary office in Chicago and a secondary winter office in Phoenix.

From February 2010 through April 2014, Mr. Shindler served as Executive Vice President – Hotels & Casinos for Hard Rock International. At Hard Rock, he oversaw both operations and development, leading the company’s growth in the Hotel and Casino sector and assembling and leading a team that implemented, oversaw and monitored robust and brand-specific operating standards, critical path protocols and brand compliance matrices for its licensed and under-construction managed hotels. In addition, the General Manager of Hard Rock’s operated casino in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana reported directly to him. During his tenure, in 2012 Hard Rock Hotels were rated by Market Metrix’s Hospitality Index as the leading Upper Upscale hotel group in the Americas.

Prior to establishing Four Corners Advisors in 2007, he was Vice President—Development and Asset Management of Las Vegas Sands, Inc., owner and operator of The Venetian in Las Vegas and the Sands Macao Casino in Macau and developer of The Venetian Macau and several other luxury hotels and condominium hotel developments in the “Cotai Strip” in Macau. At Las Vegas Sands, Mr. Shindler created Asset Management Protocols & Procedures for the hotels to be developed in Macau and owned by Las Vegas Sands, including the Four Seasons, the Sheraton and St. Regis, and others yet to have been developed. Before joining Las Vegas Sands, Mr. Shindler was Senior Vice President—Development for Global Hyatt Corporation, having rejoined Hyatt in November 2003. Previously, from 1986 to 1996, he worked for Hyatt Development Corporation in a variety of roles, beginning in October 1986 as Associate General Counsel and ending in October 1996 as Senior Vice President, where he headed the domestic Development group and was a member of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation Managing Committee.

Before rejoining Hyatt, he served as Vice President of Development of RockResorts International, LLC, the luxury-lodging subsidiary of Vail Resorts, Inc., where he was a member of Vail’s Executive Committee and was responsible for new hospitality acquisitions and development and Vail’s M&A function. He joined RockResorts/Vail Resorts in May 2002. From July 1999 to May 2002, he was Vice President of Development, Americas, for Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. In his position, Mr. Shindler was responsible for sourcing, negotiating, and concluding transactions for Mandarin Oriental’s growth in the Western Hemisphere.

From October 1996 through June 1999, Mr. Shindler was Executive Vice President of THE PLASENCIA GROUP, INC. Before joining Hyatt in 1986, Mr. Shindler served as First Vice President—Development for The Balcor Company, a Chicago based real estate syndication firm then owned by American Express Company and, before that, was a Partner and an Associate in the Chicago, Illinois, law firm now known as Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP.

Mr. Shindler has spoken and written extensively on the relationship among hotel owners and hotel managers and the impact of the legal system on that relationship and is a regular speaker at hospitality investment conferences. In addition, Mr. Shindler has lectured to both graduate and undergraduate hospitality classes at University of Denver, The Ohio State University, Roosevelt University (Chicago), University of Delaware and University of Central Florida. In addition, Mr. Shindler has been a regular faculty member for the Hotel & Tourism Law Program at the Washington College of Law of American University in Washington, DC, and has been appointed an Adjunct Assocoiate Professor of the Washington College of Law.

Mr. Shindler is a member of the International Advisory Board of Carolina Performing Arts, the organization on the campus of the University of North Carolina that is a member of Major University Presenters and is responsible for significant artistic programming on the University campus in and for the University community and the surrounding areas of North Carolina. Mr. Shindler has served as chair of the Strategic Initiatives Committee for CPA, Vice Chair of the IAB and, as of July 1, 2017, will be Chair of the Board.

Mr. Shindler received his AB in Political Science from the University of North Carolina in 1973 and his JD from Washington University (St. Louis) in 1976. Mr. Shindler and his wife, Andrea Gellin Shindler, Founder and Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Potential, an Illinois not-for-profit corporation, have two adult children (Adam and Carey), a son-in-law (Matthew Warren) and a (future) daughter-in-law (Tiffany Grob), all professionals in the hospitality industry. They live in Chicago and maintain a residence in Phoenix.

The principal of FCA, Michael Shindler, has over 40 years of sophisticated legal and transactional experience in commercial real estate, of which the last 30 years have been spent in the hospitality field.